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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Gustave H. Breymann

Gustave M. Heiss, Jr., was born in Meridian, Mississippi on April 25, 1913. He, his parents and sister, later moved to Orange, Texas, and from there to Houston, Texas. He graduated from San Jacinto High School and earned an Eagle Scout's badge during his youth. He had a lifelong love of aviation.
Heiss entered the Army Air Corps in August, 1939 and went through primary training at Love Field, Dallas. He graduated from Kelly Field in May, 1940, with Flying Cadet Class 40-B.
Between April and July, 1941, Lt. Heiss served as a military observer at the American Embassy in London.
As a member of the 17lh Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, he arrived in the Philippines on November 20, 1941. Under orders of General Lewis Brereton, he and a few other pilots escaped to Australia on December 17, 1941, ostensibly for the purpose of flying the Group's A-24 aircraft back to the Philippines. They were unable to return to the Philippines because of the southward advance of Japanese forces. He and other members of the 27l Bombardment Group were then absorbed into the 3 rd Attack Group in Australia, where he was assigned to the 13 th Squadron.
Lt. Heiss was one of the pilots of a B-25C aircraft on the famous Royce Mission to the Philippines in April, 1942. The aircraft he piloted was #41-12442, and that aircraft has been on static display as a war memorial on the north coast of New Guinea at a technical training school in Aitape since 1974. His co-pilot on the Royce Mission was Lt. Ed Townsend.
Lt. Heiss received the Silver Star and one Oak Leaf Cluster for his participation in the Royce Mission to the Philippines and for his singular role on a reconnaissance mission in identifying the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho on May 6, 1942, the day before the Battle of the Coral Sea. Because of his sighting and reporting the location of that aircraft carrier, it was sunk the following day by the U. S. Navy.
Lt. Heiss was promoted to Captain at his base in Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia in the summer of 1942. He was lost in a B-25 returning to Port Moresby, New Guinea, from a mission to Milne Bay on September 4, 1942.